Skylands Triathlon - Triathlon

Wow, what a terrible swim. I don't know why but I got dizzy and disoriented. My sighting was poor (sighting on the wrong buoys) and I couldn't control my breathing. This was my worst swim ever.

Start the race all over again.

There was a long uphill to get up the beach n the sand to reach T1. If I hadn't been so disoriented I might have run it, but I felt lousy.

I don't know.

So here's the deal, I got out of T1 nauseous, dizzy, and confused. I mounted the bike and found I was only going 10mph on what I thought was a flat. I felt lousy, kinda "fluish" and my legs were like lead. By mile 4 I decided to DNF- I was ok with it. I was just looking for a rotary volunteer to turn my chip into. Then I hit the hills, what bad timing. So I started up, and up, and up. By the time I reached the worst portion of the upper end I was going 3mph. Yeah, at that point I got off and walked. I actually walked up a hill in a race. I can't believe it. Fortunately I wasn't the only one, there were quite a few walkers out there. Oh well. By that time I figured I was at the top so I might as well enjoy the downhill (I hit 40mph). I figured I had to get back to transition anyway, so I would turn my chip in then and skip the run. No big deal, it's ok to DNF if it's my decision, right?

I wish I knew what went wrong.....

Back to the confusion. I forgot to take my feet out of my shoes coming into T2. At the last minute I unclipped BOTH feet, you can imagine how clean my dismount from the bike was...Then I decided to continue on in case there was good swag (what a good reason to finish a race). I actually sat down to put shoes and socks on- I SAT DOWN??? Oh brother, I grabbed my hat and race belt and shuffled away.

Ugh, I don't know...

For the love of gosh, why won't this day end. I shuffled along and my nausea went away. I wasn't as dizzy and the confusion went away, but I knew I wasn't quite right. Oh, and as I started the run, Andy was standing off to the side with a bottle of water (he finished before I even started the run- how motivating). I could tell I was in trouble, I was going sooooo slow. Oh how painful! The best part of the day was grabbing my daughter and carrying her across the finish line. If only I had a good race. Oh, and the heat and humidity of the day surely didn't help!

Dunno?

I needed ice water. I found the barrels of water and gatorade and scooped up ice and just kept dunking it in the barrel to drink. I must have had 10 cups of water and 2 cups of gatorade. I felt a little better but still couldn't eat. The food looked awesome (hotdogs, pierogies, salad) so I made a plate for the road. On the way home I was able to eat but felt that wierd "post adrenaline dump" shaky feeling.


I don't know, but I did wake up the next day with a sore throat and congestion. Maybe I was fighting off illness?


The race was very well organized and the food afterwards was great. It's not their fault I had a bad race. If I had to complain about something it would be the lack of swag- nothing. Oh well, This had a major hilly bike course and I'd like to do it again. Next time I'll feel better.